


What the Maids Know

by MarieKey



Category: Bridgerton (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, During Canon, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Marital angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28925340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarieKey/pseuds/MarieKey
Summary: At a great estate like Clyvedon the household staff often knows quite a bit about the family of the house. Sometimes the staff may even know something before the lord and lady of the house.  This short story imagines what the laundry maids might know.
Relationships: Daphne Bridgerton/Simon Basset
Comments: 22
Kudos: 165





	What the Maids Know

At a great estate such as Clyvedon there is no end to the laundry – table linens, bed linens, clothes from members of the household, in this case the Duke and Duchess of Hastings, and much may be learned about a house and its noble family from the laundry, if one knows what to look for.

Clyvedon was better equipped than most houses, for it had a pair of laundry maids who were as expert in care of fine fabrics as the two were hardworking. Elsie and Hattie Cooper are sisters from the nearby village who were so pleased to have been hired at Clyvedon a couple years prior after working at a neighboring estate. Their work was always exemplary and passed every inspection of even the discerning eye of Mrs. Colson. The housekeeper found the sisters’ chatter and giggling unbecoming, but she only let out a little cluck of disapproval on occasion. The maids would have no contact with the family of the house, after all, and if their silliness did not interfere with their work in the laundry room, Mrs. Colson would not trouble them about it.

Elsie and Hattie, born a year apart, were the second and third children of seven born to a tenant farmer and his wife. All who knew them from childhood on thought of the girls as two peas in a pod, younger sister Hattie a hair’s breadth quieter than her loquacious sister, but with an equally congenial disposition. Everyone liked the sisters for their sunny dispositions and strong work ethic.

From the time they could each walk their mother Ruth Cooper set about ensuring that her oldest two daughters would be good virtuous girls, skilled and hardworking, and with all the practical knowledge she could impart to prepare the girls to find work and make their way in the world. Although the Cooper home was a hive of activity like Bridgerton House, that might be the only similarity between the sisters’ upbringing and that of their new lady, the duchess. For while Daphne and her sisters had been trained from birth to be proper ladies, no matter Eloise’s resistance, the Coopers were plainspoken country folk with very different notions of propriety and proper conversation. For them, if any utility could be found in information, the information ought to be shared, making no bones about it, and wasting no time for being shy and proper.

Their mother’s teachings included insights into events of life and death. The two observed the mess of linens and rags when their mother gave birth to each of their youngest siblings, they’d helped washed the bed linens that their beloved great-grandmama had died upon, and they’d washed linens that led to plain explanations from Ruth about decidedly adult activities. When the three of them took in wash from the village inn, their mother showed where the bed linens had a stiffness of where a man and woman had been together or a stiffness of a different sort where a man had released his seed onto the sheets. The mother explained how to best launder these sheets in the same plain manner as explaining how to remove a wine stain from a shirt or table linen. She had no embarrassment about describing the various fluids of life, how they might be where they were, and how they were to be laundered.

For most of their employment at Clyvedon, the sisters only did routine washing, caring for the linens of house, keeping the tablecloths, sheets, and so on presentable in case the now-late duke decided to visit from London. Upon the elder duke’s death, the sisters agreed that one happy outcome might be that Master Simon, now the Duke of Hastings would spend some time at the house and bring excitement, maybe friends and a traveling party. What transpired instead was even happier news when the staff were informed that the Duke would not be returning to Clyvedon alone but with his duchess! The sisters began to imagine the excitement above with a duke and duchess in residence – there would be teas, dinners, parties, and balls, and they would spend their shifts chatting about the finery they imagined. And perhaps in the future, there might even be nappies and baby clothes to wash.

After the duchess arrived, the sisters asked Miss Nolan when Daphne had last had her courses, for they wanted to know when her courses might arrive again so that they could be prepared for the additional water and time needed for the soaking and scrubbing for the rags and bedlinens. Miss Nolan relayed the information, and the sisters noted it to each other, while looking at the calendar posted near the staff dining table when they might expect such laundry again.

For the first couple weeks of the couple’s honeymoon the sisters noticed that the bedlinens did not have the telltale circle from a couple’s lovemaking, but instead they found the stiffness of only a man’s spilling on the sheets or on handkerchiefs. Elsie and Hattie shared their observations with each other and giggled, making little comments like, “Looks like his Grace is not ready to plant a garden just yet.” There was only one exception, the linens from the night before the mood in Clyvedon changed. In the servants’ quarters they heard the upstairs staff whispering about the quarreling between the husband and wife. “I think the duchess may have tried to gather some seed!” Elsie said with an amazed look and Hattie looked just as shocked in return, thought about it and said, “Can’t says I disagree, sister.”

Elsie fretted and said what her sister was thinking as well, “Ooh, I hope things ain’t turning out badly for our master and mistress so soon!”

What story would the laundry tell of the couple next? The sisters would not find out soon as the couple departed a sudden return to London. The sisters recalled that the duchess would be due for her courses in several days’ time. If they arrived, no baby would be on the way.

Many days passed before the couple returned home to Clyvedon from Hastings House. When the sisters saw Miss Nolan, they discretely asked again about the duchess’s courses, wanting to know for their laundry preparations but secretly also curious about whether the duchess was now with child as they suspected she’d been intending on that fateful night before the couple’s quarreling became apparent to the whole staff. Now, however, according the upstairs staff, the couple had returned to their honeymoon demeanor: laughing, affectionate, and although they now seemed more settled into their duties as duke and duchess, they again reserved time for their amorous activities throughout the great house.

No one could spot the clues of the couple’s activities better than the laundresses. The sisters shared their observations only with each other, noting that more often than not, the linens showed the evidence of a couple’s long embrace. After a while, the laundry the sisters received showed that the duchess’s courses had come again. Hattie frowned in disappointment and told her sister she’d hoped that a child would be on the way, for all the joy a child would bring the couple and the whole house. “Well, we start the watch again after this is done,” Elsie winked at Hattie.

Before long, the duchess’s courses had ended and the couple’s love was in full bloom again. The staff both upstairs and downstairs were all overjoyed to be in the employ of such a happy couple. The footmen, maids, kitchen staff, indeed almost the whole staff would make little jokes of working for the most loved-up couple in England. The exceptions were Mrs. Colson, Jeffries, and Miss Nolan, all of whom had no interest in gossip about the couple and would disapprove if they heard even playful jokes, Mrs. Colson especially. The sisters overheard others playfully gossip about the couple but kept their remarks only to each other.

For many days the sisters did the laundry of a couple who acted on their passions, now routinely together to the completion of the duke, they noted to each other with giggles. One morning Mary, one of the chambermaids, brought the linens from the couple’s bedchamber and said, “This will need an extra scrub. There’s the duchess’s sick on it. She said last night’s dinner must not have agreed with her. Don’t tell cook.” The sisters turned to each other with eyes as big as saucers. The duchess would not be due to have her courses again for a couple days, but they knew from their mother’s explanations that a woman might have sickness from being with child before missing her courses. When laundry included the duchess’s sick again the next morning, the sisters felt certain that a new Hastings would be on the way.

More days passed with no laundry showing evidence of the duchess having her courses, and the sisters overheard the housemaids say they were washing out chamberpots that the duchess had been sick into. It was only a matter of time now before the news became official.

And sure enough, after some weeks had passed, Mrs. Colson announced to the staff that a baby Hastings would be arriving in some months, and the staff should do everything possible to keep the duchess comfortable during this time.

After the meeting had ended and the sisters had returned to the laundry room to work, Mrs. Colson popped her head in and said with a smile, “It would seem you two will have nappies to launder before long.” The sisters replied, “Yes, Mrs. Colson,” with a giggle each, and after Mrs. Colson had gone on her way, the two of them shared a long happy giggle about the news they’d known for quite some time.

**Author's Note:**

> In the series we see moments with the household linens relating to Daphne, Simon, and the Featheringtons. The thought occurred to me that household staff would have to deal with all these linens and in the process the staff might learn intimate information about the families they serve. So I invented laundry maids Elsie and Hattie who in doing the laundry would make observations in a way that's like curious, well-intentioned detectives, not nosy or gossipy (and hopefully not icky). They're characters who lead very different lives than the couple but are cheering for the couple to succeed. They're basically Daphne/Simon shippers ;-)
> 
> Of course I do NOT own the Bridgerton characters. Mrs. Colson would frown most severely at such a suggestion!


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